Q&A: Saginaw Mayor Greg Branch talks about tax cap's impact on the city

View full sizeSaginaw Mayor Greg Branch speaks during a special one-issue Saginaw City Council meeting Thursday, Dec. 13 at Saginaw High School. The meeting was held to address city finances and proposals, including a possible contract with the Saginaw County Sheriff's Department.Colleen Harrison | MLive.com

SAGINAW, MI — Saginaw is unique among Michigan cities for a pair of caps on property taxes, which was put in place by voters in 1979.

Multiple times city leaders have gone back to voters in an attempt to remove the caps, which limit both the millage rate and total collections the city can make to help fund the government. Each time, those ballot issues have been struck down.

Ezekiel Project, a local nonprofit organization, recently offered up its services to once again run a campaign aimed at lifting the cap.

Saginaw Mayor Greg Branch said the potential for added revenue would not entirely solve the city's budget problems. But, Branch said, untying the hands of city leaders to raise property taxes would ultimately be a good thing for the citizens.

Here is what he had to say on the topic:

Question: What impact has the tax cap had on the residents of Saginaw over the years?

Answer: It's taken away any opportunity we have to be flexible to change with the times. It has had some unintended consequences, one of which is an increasing reliance on income tax. We've got off on wanting to get more jobs here. You run the risk then of turning the city into an industrial park, and nobody wants to live in an industrial park.

Question: If Saginaw's tax cap was lifted and the city levy was eventually raised to the 20-mill state limit, what would that buy the city?

Answer: I think it gives us a little bit more room to work to make long-term solutions. Long-term solutions will still involve restructuring. We have to restructure public safety delivery, no matter what. We have to continue to do what we can on legacy costs. We need to continue to find efficiencies where we can including cooperative efforts and joint ventures, if you will, with municipalities. It's not a magic bullet.

Question: Is 2013 the year for another attempt to lift the tax cap?

Answer: That's up to the people. The city has tried seven times and the people have said no. There is a fairly strong sentiment from many of the neighborhood associations to lift the cap. The effort to lift the cap has to come from the citizens, and not from city hall. If the citizens of Saginaw want to have the flexibility and want the city to grow the way it could potentially, they've got to lead the charge on it.

Question: What about complaints from some that the city broke promises in the past on maintaining public safety funding during the public safety millage campaigns?

Answer: We didn't do anything we didn't say we were going to do. The public safety millage pays for 51 people, exactly the same number of police and firefighters it always had. When we passed it the first time around (we) made a pledge we wouldn't supplant this money. The second time around, we said clearly that we are not going to be able to keep staffing at the same level for the life of this millage. In the council meeting right before that election I said it very clearly, that we're going to lose some positions through attrition.